


Hounds

by FamineArcher



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alexis: why do I have to be the responsible adult, Bookstores, Café, Cross-Posted on FictionPress, Dubious Morality, Fantastic Racism, Heinrik and Sven: make jokes, Kevin: is Gay, Murder, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Mythology - Freeform, Phoenixes, Racists, References to Lovecraft, References to Norse Religion & Lore, Rowan: is a mess, Technically-not-werewolves, Underwater Panther, Vampires, Violence, assholes, this is my pet project
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29143527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FamineArcher/pseuds/FamineArcher
Summary: The Nook isn’t your average bookstore. For one thing, it’s also a cafe. For another thing, nobody who works there is human. The barista, Kevin Visser? He’s a vampire. The manager, Alexis von Brandt, is a phoenix. The twins Heinrik and Sven Doran happen to be Hati and Skoll of Norse mythology. And nobody knows what Rowan Lakatos is. She keeps that a secret.When monster-hunters come to town, will the Nook survive?
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

"Here's that honey and milk you wanted, Mr. Alfstan." The white-haired woman handed a short man his cup.

"Thank you, Miss Lakatos. Tell your manager if there's anything I can mend for you, I'll give the Nook a discount!" Alfstan the brownie paid for his drink and turned to leave.

The woman watched as he left. If someone had told her three years ago that she'd find a place she could call home, she would have laughed sarcastically and broken their nose. But the Nook didn't cater to mortals alone, and even a being like her could be safe there.

"Yo Rowan!" She turned to see an aristocratic-looking young man with fine cheekbones and shaggy brown hair. "Spacing out on us?"

Rowan felt her cheeks warm. "Sorry." She got back to work.

When her shift ended, she hung up her apron and went up the stairs to the employee housing area. The brown-haired man did the same, his shift also over. "You get lost in your head earlier?" He asked casually.

"Just thinking that a few years ago, I never would've imagined this sort of life. Not for something like me." She shrugged carelessly. "Nothing important. Were you hoping for gossip, Kevin?"

"I was curious. You never did tell us what you are, so…" Kevin shrugged back.

The albino brought her hand to her face in exasperation. "Nice try, but not happening." As she grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl, Kevin opened the refrigerator and took out a bag full of blood.

He poured some into a paper cup and put the rest back. "It was worth a shot." The vampire replied.

Rowan refused point-blank to tell her coworkers what type of supernatural creature she was, provoking wild speculation among them. None of them were even close to the truth, and she was glad of it, but the one where she was actually just a mortal who was oddly alright with the supernatural made her laugh every time.

It was better they didn't know, she always told herself. Better they didn't realize how monstrous she really was. They'd never let her stay if they knew what she was and what she'd done. Her kind didn't have a peaceful or pleasant job, and she knew the things she did were wrong.

As she contemplated these things, staring at her apple absently, a tanned woman with reddish-brown hair came up the stairs, followed by two tall dirty-blond twin men. One of the men had his hair long and in a ponytail, while the other kept his short in an undercut.

The undercut-bearing man wore an earring with the moon on it, which glinted as he settled onto a couch. "Are we missing the reveal?"

"Shut it, Heinrik." Rowan grunted, glaring.

The other twin snickered. "Nice try, bro, but she's a tough nut to crack."

"Come on, Sven, like you didn't hope for the same thing." Heinrik stuck his tongue out at his brother. Looking at them, they didn't look like Hati and Skoll who devour the moon and sun in Norse Myth, but like normal young mortal men.

The other woman sighed. "Boys. Please don't start fighting here."

"'Course not." They chorused.

The woman raised an eyebrow, smoke drifting off of her hair, sparks flickering in the braids. "I mean it."

"So do we, honest."

The phoenix rolled her eyes. "Last time you said that you ended up causing structural damage, breaking the plumbing, and short-circuiting the toaster." She retorted.

"We're not gonna make you mad ever again." Sven pointed out. "You're not fun when you're mad, Alexis."

"As long as you remember that." She said firmly.

Rowan put her untouched apple down and made her way up to her room to sleep.

Her dreams were, as always, troubled. She always dreamed of the hunt, of catching a mortal and tearing into flesh, running after terrified human prey with her fellows and slaughtering her way through crowds.

She sat up, gasping for breath, as the first rays of the sun peeked over the horizon. Sighing, the young-looking woman ran her hands through her short hair. "Damn dreams."

As she unlatched her window, her sharp senses picked up a sound. Someone was being attacked. The woman vaulted out the window and across the rooftops to see the source.

"Monster! Surrender and your death will be quick!" Some humans wearing jackets with silver heart patches on their shoulders had a patron of the Nook cornered in an alley.

"I'll surrender when Hell freezes over, you bigoted jagoffs!" The man's name was Tanin, and he liked his coffee black, boiling hot, and if possible with hot sauce in it. He worked at an auto parts shop as a mechanic. He was a friendly guy, at least normally, and had briefly dated Kevin, before the two decided they were better as friends. He was also a wyvern who had taken a human form.

One of the humans with the heart patches laughed sarcastically and stabbed him through the gut with a sword. "Gurk...what is...this…"

"Platinum, monster, quenched with dragon's blood. Good luck living through that!" He and his fellows left Tanin there, bleeding out, and swaggered out of the alley, laughing to each other.

Rowan, who had watched helplessly, landed nimbly next to Tanin once they were gone. She took his jacket from around his waist and started to rip it into strips to bandage the wound. "Stay with me, man."

"This's...prolly gonna leave a mark." He groaned.

"As long as those dipwads don't get the satisfaction of killing you, it can leave as much of a mark as it wants." Her hands never stopped moving, wrapping his injury in the remains of his jacket. "Got lucky, they missed your major organs. A bit of liver damage and a nicked lung, feels like, but you've got your healing to keep you alive once we get the blood loss under control."

He nodded and sat up. "That should do it, Lakatos." Slowly, he stood with the wall for support. "I appreciate your help. You should let as many as you can know that the silver-hearted idiots are back."

The woman nodded once, sharply. "I'll spread the word. You just lay low." She fell back into a corner of the alley and reappeared in her room. She bolted through the common area and into Alexis's room.

"Wake up." She shook the other woman's shoulder roughly.

"What?!" The phoenix turned over, glaring fit to murder.

"The Silberherzen are in town." She replied.

All the anger vanished in an instant. "Shit."

"Yeah." Rowan said grimly, the wyvern's blood drying on her hands. "And they seriously injured Tanin."

The red-haired woman inhaled sharply. "As in Tanin the _wyvern_?"

"The same. A platinum sword forged in dragon's blood isn't something he can just walk off. I happened to hear him and saved his life, but…"

The two began waking the other three.

"What's going on?" Kevin grumbled.

The albino grimaced. "Tanin's hurt bad. The Silberherzen got him."

Kevin snapped to attention. "The silver-hearted bastards!"

"I saved his life, kept him from dying of blood loss, but he's still been stabbed and has to keep under the radar for a while." She indicated the blood on her hands. "It's his blood, not mine."

Alexis frowned. "I'll get word out. The Baba Yaga at the pharmacy, the salamander at the pizza place, and so on, so they can spread the word to their customers as well." She decided.

The rest of the night was spent planning.

When the Nook opened, business went on as usual. Unfortunately, one of the Silberherzen entered at about noon.

Rowan looked up when he approached the counter. "What can I get for you, Sir?"

"A cappuccino and your number." He looked like the kind of guy who slept with any girl he could get, sleazy and swaggering, a jock or frat boy sort of character.

"A cappuccino, alright. What size?" She ignored the second half of his request.

"Large. Don't forget your number on the receipt." He grinned in a way that meant he thought he was hot shit.

She met his eyes. "Sorry, I'm gay." She turned to start making his order, but he grabbed her arm.

"Don't you dare ignore me, girly. I get what I want." He snarled.

Sven forced himself between the two. "Sir, if you continue to harass the employees, you will have to leave." He said calmly.

The bigot bared his teeth. "Like I gotta listen to you! You ain't the manager!"

"No, but _I_ am." Alexis bit out from behind him. "You need to leave. Now."

The sleazy man stormed out, yelling about how they would regret this.

The albino relaxed, the tenseness of almost growing claws leaving. "Thank you, Sven."

"No problem." He waved her off. "You looked like you could use a hand."

The rest of the day was less eventful, with the staff drawing tiny silver hearts on the cups of their supernatural customers to warn them of the threat.

The next evening, Kevin and Rowan were walking to the grocery store for food and supplies when he froze. "Someone's rigged Alfstan's car."

The brownie was about to start it when Kevin dove to shield him. "LOOK OUT!" The car exploded into a fireball.

"Kevin!" Rowan started forward, stopping when the man walked out of the flames with Alfstan under his arm.

He grinned and put the other non-mortal down. "I love explosions."

"How's Alfstan?"

"I'm fine, lass. Thanks to your friend here." The brownie dusted himself off calmly. "I'd just finished paying that car off, too."

"Kara the Yaga has a tunnel to the underground bunkers. Hide out there for a while." The woman informed him. "We've got a tunnel too, and Tanin could use some company."

"So that's where he is." He nodded and headed to the pharmacy to hide. Rowan envied his composure.

After buying their supplies, the pair returned to the Nook to tell the others what had happened.

"They _firebombed_ his car?!" Sven was pacing the room angrily. "How'd they even know he wasn't mortal?"

Alexis frowned. "That...is a good question. He looks human in almost every sense and could just be short."

 _Could it be…_ Rowan bit her lip in thought. _Could there be a traitor among the non-mortals?_

"Rowan!" Alexis snapped her fingers in front of the other woman's face. She started. "I know that face. What did you realize?"

"I hope to the gods I'm wrong." She began. "But what if, what if someone is leaking information to the bastards?"

The others froze. They hadn't even considered the possibility of that, since they trusted all their compatriots. "You have to be wrong!" Kevin insisted. "Nobody would ever-"

"Not even in exchange for their own lives?" The albino cut him off, her voice quiet but with the impact of a gunshot.

The wolves exchanged looks. "What makes you think the Silberherzen would do that?"

"They wouldn't, that's the thing. They'd lie about it, though, and if your life is at stake it's hard to tell if anyone is lying." She said softly.

"You...make a good point. It's not one of us, or Tanin or Alfstan, but that leaves a lot of people."

"The most motivated are those with family to protect as well." She added. "Or those who are already sly types." It was something she'd learned in her many years of watching people when their life was about to end, how they behaved.

Heinrik sighed. "If it's true...I don't even want to think about it."

"All we can do is go about our lives and hope to God nothing happens."


	2. Chapter 2

Rowan woke in the middle of the night a few days later, a feeling at the back of her mind. “Shit.” She scrambled into clothes and scrawled out a note to the others, then grimaced and stepped into the corner, using it to transport herself elsewhere.

She emerged in a place beyond comprehension. Anyone without the perception of her kind or something similar would have gone insane. She could hear the colors in the air, taste the impossible angles of the ground, see the sounds of some of her fellows as they gathered.

A voice slammed into her brain like a bat covered in nails. “ **It iS tIMe foR YOu tO Do YoUr duTy oNcE MorE, MY HoUndS. A GroUp of ThOsE wITh siLVeR HeArTs WisH To ChAnGe ThE pAst. THoSe GAthEreD hErE ArE tO SlAuGHter aLl tWenTY. GiVe nO QuArTeR. AnY WiTh ThEM aRe gUILty bY AsSociAtIOn.** ”

The four of her kin that had been summoned muttered excitedly.

“ **No MerCy foR ThOse wHo BrEaK tHe OnLy tRUe RuLE. TiMe Is SAcrEd. NoW GO!** ”

Rowan closed her eyes and assumed the form she kept hidden. 

Smoke surrounded her, slowly clearing to reveal glassy ribs wreathed in blue-black smoke, a skeletal head with cartilaginous ears and smoke drifting from the eye sockets and mouth, and paws that were just clear bones. The woman had vanished completely, replaced with the glass skeleton of a wolf that emitted smoke. Wicked glasslike claws, almost small daggers, clicked against the ground as she moved. Translucent ears moved this way and that to pick up all the sounds they could.

Her paws joined four other sets as the Hounds of Tindalos set out on the hunt.

The five emerged in a warehouse full of the Silberherzen, over a hundred of them.

_ So much for twenty. _

This wasn’t anywhere she recognized, likely another outpost somewhere. The largest of her fellows leapt forward, jaws closing around a neck and hollow tongue impaling the jugular.

As the others watched, the man shriveled up, his blood and bodily fluids consumed by the Hound. As soon as the body hit the ground, Rowan and the rest sprang into action, tearing through the crowd of people.

The humans tried to fight back, but only managed to scratch the Hounds, who moved too fast for any direct hits. Rowan was the slowest and smallest, so sometimes she would be hit harder.

“Oh God no, please no! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!” A woman screamed as the Hound advanced. She hesitated, but looking at her fellows toying with their prey, she knew the best she could do was a painless death.

_ I’m sorry. _

Her teeth tore the woman’s throat out. Unlike her companions, her tongue was dry. She refused to drain anyone, not now she knew that humans lived and loved and died like flames: short-lived, bright, and beautiful.

The Hounds left the warehouse, chasing down the stragglers. They chased a certain group for weeks, as the humans were cleverer than usual. They hunted through the woods in both human and Hound forms, tracking the Silberherzen that wanted to change the past.

Eventually, they cornered them. All five Hounds leapt upon their prey, ruthless and merciless bringers of death.

When all of the humans were dead, the Hounds returned to human form.

The black-haired one, wearing ragged clothes and looking like a homeless person, grinned like a madman. “Ey Whitey, goin’ on a diet or somethin’?” The others snickered.

“Shove it.” She snapped.

“You’re gonna end up dead if ya keep this up. Shame, ya used ta be one of the most vicious bitches ‘round.”

She turned on him. “I said,  _ shove it _ . Or do you want me to show you how vicious I can be?”

He raised his hands. “Fine. It’s none of my business if ya starve ta death. See ya ‘round, Whitey.” He and the others left via corners.

The woman sighed and followed suit.

* * *

“This isn’t like her.” Alexis pointed out. “She loves this place, would probably murder for it. Just vanishing for two weeks is unusual.”

Kevin shrugged. “Well, who knows why she left. What matters is that she left the worst note ever. ‘Sorry, personal business. Back soon.’ That doesn’t give us anything to go on. And she’s not back ‘soon’ so something must have happened.”

“At least she left a note.”

Heinrik examined the room. “It looks like she was in a hurry.”

“Yep. What a mess.” The vampire agreed.

A faint wisp of smoke caught Sven’s eye. “Uh, guys?” When they looked over, he pointed.

It grew from a thread to a billowing cloud as the four watched, a black mass of smoke or mist roiling in the corner. All four were ready to spring into action, but were caught off-guard when their wayward co-worker stumbled from the cloud.

As the black smoke faded, they took in her appearance. Her hair and clothes were ragged and stained with dirt and blood, and the circles under her eyes were deeper than ever. She was scratched up and bruised like she’d lost a fight with a whole gang of wildcats.

“Suppose I owe you guys an explanation?” She forced a smirk, then passed out.

* * *

When Rowan woke, she was on the couch in the common area with her head in Alexis’ lap. The phoenix helped her sit up.

“Explanations can wait. You know how Kev has a medical degree? Apparently you’re on the bleeding edge of starvation.”

Heinrik and Sven watched from their spots leaning against the wall, while Kevin sat in one of the chairs. “It’s true. I’m surprised you haven’t passed out before, honestly. Of course, whatever you are might have a different body shape, but I doubt it.”

“It’s none of-” She stopped when Alexis glared at her.

“It is our business.” Heinrik said firmly.

“Why do you even care?”

Sven growled low in his throat. “We care because we’re your friends, you colossal idiot!”

_...oh. That’s new. First time in my life anyone’s actually called themself my friend. _

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. What were you thinking?!” Kevin snapped.

She felt her restraint vanish. “I was thinking that I don’t want to leave corpses in my wake!”

Alexis put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed hard. “Explain.” The word was deadly.

“I would really rather not.”

“You owe us.”

“Fuck. Fine. My kind are sort of like vampires. Our tongues, in our other form, suck all the bodily fluids out of our prey, painfully. I do  _ not  _ want to do that anymore.” She looked away from them, not wanting to see the judgemental stares.

Heinrik raised an eyebrow. “Other form?”

“If I do it here, I’ll scratch up the floor.” She deflected, uneasy.

“Do it anyway.” He told her, the others nodding.

Rowan grimaced and closed her eyes. She shifted, bones popping and smoke billowing. When she was done, she couldn’t close her eyes, since she had no eyelids.

Alexis stared. “Oh my God, you’re so cool. Can I pet you?”

The smoke around her cheeks turned pink and she nodded. A hand stroked the skull between her ears and she leaned into it. Her skeletal tail beat against the floor and her hollow tongue lolled out of her mouth.

Kevin crouched in front of her and examined her tongue. “You eat through that? Cool, we might be related.” 

She released a puff of smoke in a sigh, then shook her head. “ _ I don’t think vampires are old enough. _ ” Her voice dragged across the ears like broken glass. “ _ My kind are as old as humankind, maybe older. _ ”

“Damn. If I wasn’t gay, I’d ask to marry you because that is cool as shit.”

“ _ If I wasn’t gay, I’d accept. _ ” They both laughed.

Heinrik and Sven looked at her. “You’re a Beringian wolf.”

“ _ Huh? _ ”

“An extinct wolf species. Really really strong jaws, same size as some modern wolves, took down giant animals with its massive bite force.”

“ _ Guess you would know, huh? _ ” she replied, then leaned into Alexis’ hand scratching behind her ears.

“So, what are you?”

“ _ My kind hunt down anyone who tries to travel through time or mess with time, and we slaughter them. We’re the Hounds of Tindalos. _ ”

“That’s where you've been?”

She returned to human form, Alexis’ hand now in her hair. “Silberherzen outpost somewhere far from here, twenty of them were trying to go back in time to change something. Our orders were to kill anyone with them as well. Over a hundred of the bigots were there. Some escaped and we had to chase them down.”

“I’m guessing your kin drain their prey?”

A look of shame crossed her face. “I used to be just like them.”

Kevin raised an eyebrow. “What changed?”

“In 1842, I had to kill everyone in an orphanage because one of the employees was attempting to use magic to travel back in time in order to save his daughter. Everyone, even the youngest kids. The workers threw themselves in front of the children, older children shielded the younger...I still see their faces when I close my eyes.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t stay the same after that.”

The air around Alexis heated up. “You did WHAT?!”

“It’s not like I had a choice.” She muttered, leaning away from the hand that was now digging into her scalp.

“You always have a choice.”

Rowan grimaced. “The choice was kill or suffer for eternity, and I wasn’t that nice of a person back then. I’m still not that selfless.”

“What do you mean, suffer for eternity?” The brunet vampire questioned.

“The power that sends us on assignments is beyond your comprehension. Its voice goes right into your brain and feels like dragging rusty nails through your ears. It has command of time, Kev. Time. I tried to disobey after the orphanage, let a kid go, and It tortured me for what was decades for me but days for everyone else. I’ve still got the scars. I really mean it when I say eternity.” She rubbed a scar on her neck absently.

Alexis paled. “Wait, that’s where the ones on your back are from?”

“How do you know what’s on my back?” Rowan’s voice got higher and she turned pink. “Have you seen me naked?!”

“I walked in when you were changing once, calm down.”

She buried her face in her hands, still flushed. “Oh my God.” It came out muffled. “But some of them, yes.”

“Shit. That’s a good reason to not cross the power that orders you.” Alexis patted her shoulder.

“I was glad to do it this time. Silberherzen, remember. Speaking of, how have things been while I was gone?” She tried to change the subject.

“Some of the goblins are dead. They were out tagging when the Silberherzen found them. Tags half done and corpses everywhere. But that’s not important. You have to eat.” The phoenix insisted. “Hell, I can’t die, feed on me!”

Her fists tightened in her lap. “No.”

“You’re an idiot. We don’t want you to die!”

“I don’t either, but I can’t feed without remembering what I’ve done!” The Hound snapped. She regretted it instantly. “Wait-shit. Forget you heard that.”

Kevin shook his head. “Just feed on someone, damnit!”

She growled through her teeth at him, then made to get up, only to stumble and fall back down.

“You need to-idea! Kevin, grab a blood bag.”

“Now that’s a good idea.”

“It won’t be quite right.” She warned them. “Bodily fluids that aren’t blood are part of what I need. Like lymphatic fluid or cerebrospinal fluid.”

Alexis elbowed her hard. “Just freaking feed from me then. Otherwise, blood bags it is.”

“Fine. Blood bags.” she gave in.

Kevin put a full bag in her hand, and she put it down to shift forms. Once she’d changed, she grabbed it gently in her jaws and her tongue pierced through the plastic.

She drank about half of it and stopped, unable to keep going. Setting the bag down, she returned to human form and wiped her mouth, grimacing. “Happy now?”

Kevin nodded. “But you are an idiot beyond all measure for basically starving yourself almost to death. You know Alexis can regenerate and I can heal, ask one of us or something!”

A soft smirk worked up the corner of her mouth. “Maybe someday.” She whispered, almost without meaning to.

“Anyway, the silver-hearted idiots have been quiet aside from the goblin thing. It’s almost eerie, really.”

She yawned. “Sorry, haven't slept much the past few weeks.”

“We can continue this tomorrow. Go to sleep.”

The Hound made her way to her room and curled up under her blanket. That night she had no dreams.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, she was serving again like nothing ever happened. As she served a golem named Ezra, he asked her a question. “So, where have you been?”

She shrugged, pretending not to notice the rest of the patrons listening in. “Family business.”

“Really? That’s what you’re going with?”

“I had to meet four of my cousins in order to take care of something for our grandfather, okay?” She told him firmly.

Later, she was picking up more coffee beans when ten of the Silberherzen surrounded her and forced her into a side street.

“You were at the Ontario warehouse just after the cameras cut out and everyone inside was killed.” One man pushed her against the wall. “What did you do?!”

“Does your whole organization know about this?” The Hound replied, not answering him.

“Nah, just me and the boys here. We wanted to find out what happened before we spread the footage around. The footage is right here. We can watch it if you need help remembering.” He held up a thumb drive.

Quick as lightning, her hand snapped out to grab it, squeezing hard enough to break both the drive and his hand. “Good. It means if I just take care of you, this won’t bite me later.”

Her other hand was in a fist, hiding glassy claws on her fingertips. She let go of the man’s shattered hand and shoved the heel of hers into his throat, crushing his trachea.

As he stumbled back, gasping, his fellow bigots were upon her, six silver blades and three guns with silver bullets now visible. One swung his butcher knife at her and she ducked underneath the arc, then stabbed her claws through his foot, tearing upward to mangle his shin as well.

A silenced gun went off and she looked down. Blood spread from her right side across her shirt. Instead of panicking, the albino rose from her crouch and surveyed the situation. One dead of a crushed throat, one bleeding out from a shredded leg, eight still standing.

Her claws tore through the shooter’s belly, letting his guts spill everywhere. The stench of feces filled the alleyway. He’d be dead shortly. That left seven.

More popping heralded the two other gunners opening fire. She dodged all the bullets this time, then speared her fingers through the duo’s eye sockets, claws and all. They went limp. Five more.

Rowan caught a blade in her hand, unfazed by the cuts she received. She pulled, dragging the man forward, and shoved him into a knife-wielding woman, sending them both stumbling. In their wake, another woman charged with a machete drawn. The Hound grabbed her blade arm and tore out her throat with suddenly-glass teeth. Four more alive.

The two she’d knocked down had managed to untangle themselves. They ran at her again. Her fingers curled, baring their claws, and she stabbed them each in the upper chest. Blood went everywhere. She’d hit their hearts. Only two to go.

One of the remaining two had lost his nerve. He turned to run, but she shifted forms and tackled him to the ground, then stepped on his neck until she heard a crack. One left.

She returned to human form and approached the last Silberherzen. The man brandished his blade at her, panicking. “M-Monster!”

The woman bared her teeth at him, still glassy points. “So you say. But you? You’re the real monsters. We just wanted to be left alone!” She grabbed him by the throat and pushed him against the wall. “This could have been avoided if you’d just let us be.” Her hand tightened. The man clawed at his neck, trying to breathe. She kept squeezing until he stopped moving and his bladder emptied, signaling that he was dead.

She wiped her hands on his shirt and stumbled. Her wound throbbed painfully, but she grabbed a clean Silberherzen jacket and threw it on over her bloodied clothes, then picked up the coffee she had bought before.

The Nook was closed when she got there, but she unlocked the door and started packing away the groceries in the kitchen.

Kevin entered the kitchen. “Hey, how’d-what the hell are you wearing?”

“Got into a fight with the bastards and got blood on my clothes. Didn’t wanna get stopped on the way back.” She explained, slightly slurring her words.

“Explains why you smell like blood. You hurt?”

“Just…” She staggered, hand going to her injured side. The vampire scooped her up in his arms. “Hey!”

“No protesting from the injured.” He carried her up to the common area and put her on the couch. “Alright, let me see it.”

She took off the Silberherzen jacket and stopped. “Do I have to take my shirt off in front of you?”

The brunet gave her a deadpan look. “We’re both gay, now let me see the freaking wound.”

She painfully pulled off her blood-soaked shirt. “You were SHOT?!” His voice alerted their coworkers to the fact that Rowan had returned.

Alexis ran down the stairs to see the duo. “Who was shot?!”

The albino squeaked and tried to cover herself, showing the others her back. Below the blood, it was covered in scars. Some looked to have come from a brutal whipping, while others were from knives, guns, and fire. A few were bite marks and claw marks, and a couple were brands.

Heinrik and Sven stopped in their tracks. “What the hell happened to you?”

She winced as Kevin started to treat the wound. “I’m really old, and I’ve been doing my job for millennia. I sometimes mess up, just like anyone else.” As a bandage was wrapped around her body she shrugged. “That’s all.”

“And your boss once tortured you.” Alexis added dryly.

“That mostly didn’t leave scars.” The Hound replied softly. “It was very careful not to mark me up too much. Apparently it would be shameful for It to leave a lasting mark on Its Hounds, something about being a good owner. Like we’re Its pets or something.”

“That's screwed up.” Kevin growled.

“That’s how it is. Ow!” He’d pulled tight on the bandage.

“Sorry. What happened anyway?”

Rowan grimaced. “Silberherzen bastards cornered me in an alleyway.”

“They knew who you were?”

“There were ten of them and they were the only ones who knew. There’s footage of me before the Hound attack. Once we turn, we mess with the cameras, so no conclusive evidence. I killed them all and destroyed the only footage of the attack, so there’s not a reason to worry.”

“TEN OF THEM!?” She wasn’t sure who yelled that one.

“Ten.”

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this little project for a long time. Tell me if it's any good!


End file.
